MOSCOW, March 4. /TASS/. Russia will speed up development of a vaccine against the novel coronavirus, Russian Deputy Prime Minister Tatyana Golikova said during a meeting between President Vladimir Putin and members of the Russian government on Wednesday.
"Currently, the State Research Center of Virology and Biotechnology "VECTOR" located in the Novosibirsk Region is working on developing vaccines against the novel coronavirus infection, working on 13 variants in 5 areas. We are trying to speed up the development of these drugs to the extent possible," she said.
Earlier, Golikova informed reporters that Russia had received a strain of the coronavirus infection.
In late December 2019, Chinese authorities notified the World Health Organization (WHO) about an outbreak of a previously unknown pneumonia in the city of Wuhan, central China. According to Chinese authorities, over 80,000 people have been infected with the virus in the country. The death toll is nearing 3,000, while about 50,000 patients have recovered. WHO declared the outbreak of the novel coronavirus a global health emergency and named the virus COVID-19. Cases of coronavirus have been reported in over 70 countries, including Russia. The largest outbreaks of COVID-19 outside of China have been detected in South Korea, Iran and Italy.
According to WHO, the number of people infected with COVID-19 outside of China is nearing 10,500, with over 160 people dead.